1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electrical connectors that utilize a lever actuation mechanism and in particular to improving the assembly of the actuating lever to the connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known in the field of electrical connectors to utilize an actuating lever in order to ease the mating of complementary connectors through mechanical advantage. Typically, the actuating lever is incorporated into one half of a mating connector pair and includes a feature for co-operating with a complementary feature on the other half of the mating connector pair. Upon actuation of the lever, the feature of the lever and that upon the complementary connector interact, thereby drawing the two halves of the connector pair together. There are two relatively common co-operating features that are used to draw the connector pair together. The first feature utilizes a camming groove and a cam follower. The actuation of the lever produces relative movement therebetween, thereby drawing the connector pair together. The second feature utilizes a gear rack and meshing gear pinion such that movement of the lever results in cooperation therebetween in order to bring the connector pair together.
The one feature that both of these styles of actuation have in common is that the actuation lever needs a pivot point with the housing in order to define the rotation of the lever. This is accomplished in various ways. For example, it is known to incorporate holes in both the connector and the lever which is attached thereto by inserting a pin through these holes. It is also known to incorporate a pin onto either the actuating lever or the connector housing and a hole in the other so that when the pin is positioned in the hole, the pivot point is established. In normal situations, both the hole and pin are visible and enable easy assembly of the actuating lever to the connector housing. However, in some cases, for example when the mated connectors must be sealed from outside contamination, it is necessary that the lever must be assembled to the base connector in such a way that the location of the pin and hole are no longer visible. Without this visibility, it becomes very difficult to easily assemble the actuating lever to the base connector in the quick and efficient manner for volume product.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,463,912 a solution for this problem is disclosed for situations where the pins are disposed upon the actuating lever. The connector housing includes a basic hood portion surrounded by an outer wall that includes the pivot defining holes for receiving the pins on the lever. The lever is a U-shaped member having opposing lever arms upon which the pins have been formed. These lever arms are to be received within a channel defined between the hood portion and the outer wall. The problem described above is solved by incorporating a groove in the outer wall that receives the pin and during insertion of the lever into the channel. The groove both deflects the lever and guides the pin towards the hole so that upon reaching the hole the resilience of the lever arm biases the pin into the hole, thereby establishing the pivot point. This solution is satisfactory for cases where the pin is incorporated and to the lever arm.
However, there are various situations when it is necessary or desirable to incorporate the pin in the housing, so that now the pin, not the hole is located on the outer wall and within the channel. In this situation, the confines of the channel are relatively small further reducing the ability to see the location of the pin therein to align the hole in the lever therewith. Additionally, it is necessary to deflect the arms of the lever so that the ends of the arms as they are being inserted into the channel clear the pin. Even after this is accomplished with the lever in the channel and further blocking an assembler's visibility, it is still necessary to align the pin and the hole, which are relatively closely dimensioned.
This problem is solved by providing both guide and biasing features along a wall of a connector housing and corresponding complementary guiding surfaces and camming surfaces towards an end of the lever such that upon assembly of the lever with the connector the guiding surfaces co-operate to align the hole in the lever arm relative the pin and the biasing surfaces co-operate to deflect the arm of the lever such that the end thereof will pass over the pin.
It is an advantage of the invention that a lever incorporating openings to establish a pivot point with the base can be easily and reliably assembled therewith. It is yet another advantage of the invention that these features may now be easily moulded into the respective components. It is still yet another advantage that a relief feature is included as part of the lever so that the lever doe not interfere with the camming members during operation.